Through a statement, the Cesar Departmental Board for Human Rights and Territories denounced that they threatened the academic researcher Armando Martínez Rosales, who is a professor in the Sociology program of the UPC in Valledupar.
The intimidation of Martínez Rosales would have been received through a WhatsApp message issued by a foreign telephone line and in the name of the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, AGC.
In the message, they point out to the teacher that he does not agree with the guidelines of the armed group and accuse him of being behind the hooded men who carry out revolutionary activities at the university.
Finally, they order the teacher to leave the country and if he does not do so, he could be the target of military action against his integrity.
“This threat takes place in a context in which Valledupar has become one of the epicenters of consolidation and expansion of the AGC in the department, a process that has been developing from the deployment of strategies of territorial control and constitution, at different scales, of ‘criminal governance’ and whose most violent expression is selective homicides”, indicated the Departmental Human Rights Board.
Professor Armando Martínez Rosales, a native of Mexico, has been teaching at the UPC for six and a half years, therefore, they ask the authorities for his protection.
“The threat against Professor Armando Martínez Rosales, in addition to clearly putting his life and personal integrity at risk, must be assumed as a threat against the UPC academic community as a whole,” stated the Departmental Human Rights Board.
The organization also recalled that the educational establishment, through a resolution of July 26, 2017, was recognized by the State as subject to collective reparation, a process that was achieved in part by the management of the threatened teacher.
EL PILÓN learned from students of the educational establishment that precisely the teacher has supported student causes, for which they consider that they seek to silence the protests through violence.
The academic community called on the police and government authorities to guarantee the life of the professor during his work at the university and outside of it.